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Lex Luthor
' Lex Luthor' - also known as Doctor Lex Luthor - is a character from the DC Comics crossover story Superman: War of the Worlds. He is portrayed both in his classical role as an antagonist to Superman but also as a protagonist in the comic story. Much like his prominent comic book incarnations, Lex Luthor is shown as being callous, ruthless and hungry for power. However, he is also a brilliant scientist and an intelligent man, which helped him not only survive the War of the Worlds but also aid humanity to quicken its end. Story Lex Luthor is first seen at the Martian cylinder crash site in Woking, Metropolis - having been with Ogilvy when the cylinder came down and who investigated it with him. When Clark Kent and Lois Lane are sent to cover the story, Lois begins to talk to Ogilvy about the cylinder, with Lex - who is instructing workmen in the pit at the time - getting notably angry regarding Ogilvy telling 'their business' to the newspapers. When the cylinder finished unscrewing and the first Martian appeared before falling out, Lex shouted for the Police officers at the scene to keep the crowds back. He was also against Ogilvy going up to the cylinder with his white flag of truce as he believed trying to make contact with the Martians would be a foolish plan, choosing instead to go to his car when Ogilvy proceeded with his plan anyway. His choice to leave was an action that ultimately saved him when the Martians unveiled their Heat Ray before opening fire on the crowds gathered around the crash site. After the Martians had constructed a group of five Tripods (one of which was taken down by Clark Kent in his superhero attire) which quickly overcame the Armed forces sent to fight them and began to march towards Metropolis, Lex Luthor returned and found Lois - who had survived the Heat Ray thanks to Clark and was surprised to see Lex still alive; having not seen him leave and therefore presuming that he had perished during the attack. However, Lex explained how he had tried to prevent Ogilvy from making contact with the Martians and chose to leave in his car when Ogilvy proceeded with his plan regardless. Although Lex let Lois into his car, he refused to take her back to the Daily Star - instead saying he needed to get back to his Laboratory to recover certain experiments. Unfortunately, the pair were forced to abandon Lex's car after running into a mass of abandoned/burning vehicles. Calling for Lois to run as a group of Tripods advanced towards them, Lois was not quick enough and was grabbed by a Martian, while one of their Heat Rays set Lex's hair on fire - the shock and pain stalling him long enough for another Tripod to capture him. Following his capture, Lex (now bald) and Lois were placed into pens at a Martian Concentration Camp - been used as slave labor while the Martians continued their attack on America's other major cities before moving onto the rest of the world. However, one week after his capture, Lex was taken out of his pen by the Martians - who telepathically sensed his genius and asked for his assistance. As it turned out, the Martians had managed to capture Clark following a heated battle in Metropolis - bringing him down through a combination of their Black Smoke and their Heat Rays in an attack that rendered him comatose. However, while they are curious to discover why Clark was able to resist their weaponry for so long along with his other supernatural abilities, they were struggling to experiment on him as his skin was resisting penetration and so decided to offer Lex the chance to help them - with Lex (despite understanding that the Martians didn't fully trust him) agreeing to help as it was the chance to not only survive but also to experiment on a potential alien was a temptation he couldn't resist. However, communicating with them through their computing machines, he made sure to request that Lois be kept alive - both to keep Clark in line for when he eventually awoke and because he himself found Lois appealing. When Clark did eventually awaken, three weeks had passed since the Martians had first landed - with Lex (who had managed to learn the Martian's rune-like language) bringing Clark up to date on all that had happened; explaining how Metropolis and the rest of America's major cities had been destroyed, with Britain, Germany, Russia and other nations suffering similar fates while Franklin Roosevelt, the Royal Family, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin were either dead or missing. He also revealed that the Martians devoured humans by extracting their blood and then injecting it into themselves, while herding humanity into Concentration camps to be used as slave labor and eventually as food - with the camps guarded by Martians riding in Handling-machines. Although Clark accuses Lex of been a traitor to humanity for siding with the Martians, Lex responds by stating "Humanity is finished...and I'd be a damn fool to go down with it". Bringing in Lois, she too was shocked at Lex's co-operation with the Martians - with Lex passing off her comments and confronting Clark about his origins possibly been extraterrestrial. Clark admits that he doesn't know where he originally came from, but concedes that his adoptive parents admitted to him that they found him in a rocket. Following this, Lex informs the Martians of this new information as he shows Clark and Lois a Martian 'Hospital' - explaining that the Martians are getting ill due to having no immunity to Earth's bacteria and that this is happening all over the world. However, after Lois points out that the Martians around Clark don't seem to be showing any signs of illness, Lex realizes that something to do with Clark's alien DNA is keeping the Martians healthy - stating that Clark may indeed be the savior of the Martians and even refers to him as the "Nietzschean Superman", despite Lois referring to him as a monster for still wanting to help the Martian's succeed. Furthermore, when Lex successfully manages to draw blood from Superman (drawing it from where he is still healing following his battles with the Tripods) and analyzes it, he reveals that Superman's Kryptonian biology is cancelling out the effects of Earth's bacteria - which is why the Martians who are working around him aren't getting sick. However, the Martians - now only needing to replicate the antibodies in Clark's blood and thus no longer needing Lex - attempt to devour him. Begging for help, he is saved by Lois when she stabs the Martian attacking him with a feeding tube. Helping her to free Clark, he watches with her as Clark battles and defeats a group of Handling-machines sent to stop him. Angered by their attempt to kill him, Lex responds to one of the injured Martians by 'showing it the same mercy they intended to show him' as he batters it to death with one of the Handling-machines broken legs. Referring to his time helping them as a case of 'temporary madness', he nonetheless proceeded to escape the Martian's lab with Lois as Clark freed the humans from the concentration camp and battled more of the Handling-machines'; with Lex remarking how incredible Clark's strength was. He continued to watch as Clark battled a group of Tripods and finally a Flying-machine. As he watched, both he and Clark realized that anything flying between the Flying-machine and the ground interferes with the Flying Machine's anti-gravity system - with Clark capitalizing on this by throwing the wreckage of one of the Tripods underneath the Flying-machine and causing it to crash. Rushing to Clark's side after the fight as Clark succumbed to his wounds, he listened as Clark expressed during his dying breaths that while he had to fight the Martians to save Earth, he sympathized with them as - like him - they came from a dying world and that if they hadn't come, people may have been running from him. Checking on Clark, Lex found that the injuries he had sustained from his battles with the Martians had proven fatal. Using what he had learned from Clark's fights with the Martians, Lex constructed a new weapon used by the Army that replicated the disruption to the Martian's anti-gravity systems - bringing down the Tripods and Flying Machines faster as Earth's bacteria eventually finished them off. Following the War of the Worlds, Lex married Lois Lane and was later sworn in as Vice President of the United States under John Nance Garner - who takes over as the President. Trivia Lex is the only one in the comic to call Clark (indirectly) 'Superman' when he refers to Clark as he "Nietzschean Superman". This references both Frederick Nietzsche and the concept of the Übermensch (German for "Superman", "Superhuman", etc) that featured in Frederick's philosophies. Category:Characters Category:Male character Category:Humans Category:Villains Category:Superman Category:Crossover Characters